AriSEIA Joins Motion to Reconsider Admission of AZFEC Exhibits

READ THE FILING

AriSEIA has joined a motion asking the Administrative Law Judge to reconsider the admission of a report that claims solar energy is expensive and unreliable, arguing that the document lacks a disclosed methodology, was not authored by the sponsoring witness, and directly conflicts with substantial evidence already in the record.

The report, offered by the Arizona Free Enterprise Club, is a policy brief published by the Heartland Institute. Although the witness who sponsored the exhibit cited it in his testimony, he acknowledged during cross-examination that he did not write the report, did not develop its scoring system, and could not explain the methodology used to reach its conclusions.

The publication presents itself as an "objective scorecard" comparing different electric generation technologies. It assigns numerical scores to resources such as solar, wind, coal, natural gas, and nuclear, concluding that solar is among the least affordable and least reliable generation resources. However, the report contains no methodology explaining how those scores were calculated, how competing factors were weighted, or how the numerical rankings were derived.

AriSEIA's filing argues that unsupported conclusions should not be admitted for the truth of the matters asserted simply because they appear in a published report. Instead, parties should be required to demonstrate the analytical basis for factual claims that are central to issues being litigated before the Arizona Corporation Commission.

The filing also notes that the report's conclusions are inconsistent with other evidence already admitted into the case, including APS's own long-term resource planning and nationally recognized cost analyses showing that renewable energy continues to be among the most cost-competitive options for new electric generation.

Administrative proceedings often operate under more flexible evidentiary standards than traditional court proceedings. Even so, those standards do not eliminate the need for reliable evidence. When a publication presents factual conclusions without explaining how those conclusions were reached, and the sponsoring witness cannot explain or defend the underlying analysis, the Commission should carefully consider whether the exhibit deserves any evidentiary weight.
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As Arizona continues to make long-term decisions about reliability, affordability, and the future of the electric grid, those decisions should be based on transparent analysis, sound methodology, and credible evidence—not unsupported scorecards.